19552 GW Mag 26_Final_singles - Flipbook - Page 46
‘Wanted!’
Hunt for Lincoln’s
Killer Leads Student
to Artifact
Isabella Quartiere, BA ’25, is exploring
how a John Wilkes Booth wanted poster
preserved at GW reflects presidential
history and American culture.
ON APRIL 20, 1865, JUST FIVE DAYS AFTER PRESIDENT
Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre, the streets of
Washington, D.C., were 昀椀lled with more than grief and anger.
Suddenly, the shocked public saw stark announcements nailed to
posts, fences and walls. In bold black type, newly hung “Wanted”
posters blared: “$100,000 REWARD”—the largest amount ever
offered by the federal government for a fugitive.
Some posters featured woodcut-framed photographs of the
three most wanted men in the world—Lincoln assassin John
Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators John Surratt and David
Herold—atop a message that warned “THE MURDERER of our
late beloved President Abraham Lincoln IS STILL AT LARGE.”
One of those rare posters is preserved at George Washington
University, where second-year anthropology graduate student
Isabella Quartiere, BA ’25, is bringing it back into focus.
A curatorial and exhibitions assistant at the Albert H. Small
Center for National Capital Area Studies, where the wanted poster
resides, Quartiere is 昀氀ipping the pages of history by examining the
little-researched artifact—its origins, its signi昀椀cance and what it
tells us about how a fraught moment more than 160 years ago still
enthralls scholars, history buffs and collectors.
46 | www.columbian.gwu.edu
“We have this amazing piece of American presidential history,
and a lot of people don’t know it’s here,” said Quartiere, who
earned a bachelor’s degree in history. “I’m trying to bring this story
to light—for the GW community, the D.C. community and
historians in general.”
Printed by the War Department under Secretary Edwin Stanton,
the posters—or broadsides—hung for just six days until Booth was
shot by a Union soldier after being cornered in a Virginia tobacco
barn. No one’s sure how many still exist—maybe 30 or 40. Some
were torn to pieces by enraged mourning mobs. Others were never
widely circulated before Booth’s swift capture.
But the broadside is among the most iconic artifacts connected
to Lincoln’s assassination and a touchstone of “Lincolnalia”
enthusiasts. It’s been covered by the History Channel and featured
on the TV show “Pawn Stars.” Versions of the poster have sold for
more than $200,000.
Quartiere scoured through academic articles and auction
house receipts while researching the poster. She relied on both
her anthropology and history backgrounds to understand how the
broadside re昀氀ects the anguish and outrage of mid-19th-century
Americans while also ushering in a cultural obsession with
presidential memorabilia.
